An ode to misbehaviour

[smacksaw]

It's very timely that in a period in which we get a new server (Bellocan) that seems to be filled with the biggest idiots ever AND the whole blackwingdragon situation gets resurrected, good old FARK.com has this little gem:

Study: Why Teens Don't Care ( Read more... )

Comments

[epynephrin]

"The area of the brain associated with higher-level thinking, empathy, and guilt is underused by teenagers, reports a new study."

That amuses me. I've occasionally felt like i'm the only person on earth who knows how to use the pink, squishy thing in his head. Apparently I wasn't too far off =P

I was also thinking about how impatient we--as a people, although many of the teenagers seem to exemplify this in a worse way--have gotten. For many of our parents and/or grandparents, the closest thing to an MMO they'd get would be chess by snail-mail. Nearest to IMs would be telegrams. Some of the earliest cars maxed out at maybe 20mph? They may not have literally been walking 20 miles to school in the snow, uphill both ways; but the simpler times obviously taught them something. I feel I can make this statement because of some of the people I've encountered on Maple: beggars who won't earn their money by killing stuff; hackers who are too impatient to play through the normal means; "Wil u b mai GF"ers who aren't self-confident, patient, or evidently strong enough to find real love; and the myriads who would sooner "CC Plox", defame, run away, or KS than they would come to some kind of compromise over any issue. Perhaps there should be an age or maturity limit on those on the web?
(note: I haven't actually done any research, so I could be wrong on dates, statistics, etc.)

[smacksaw]

heh...I wasn't 1/3 through the email and I was thinking "yeah, people say CC NOW" or whatever and you haven't even dropped in yet, they see you before you see the map or whatever.

I was CCing and breaking boxes for the Relax chair on Bellocan, and I'd land and some noob would be attacking me with a sword...ie, "go away" and if the box appeared, he hit it first.

And this was on several channels.

But there is an age limit on MS. It's 13. Just in time for us to reap the benefits of their hormone-addled brains. What a godsend...the parents can't handle the kid anymore, so they can dump them off on WoW or MS or whatever.

My friend owned an internet cafe, and they had an all day special for $20. There were TONS of families that would bring the kids in and leave them there for 8, 10, 16 hours. That's cheaper than a babysitter. And they got to be agressive punks online all they wanted.

They'd do all-nighters (with food/sleepover) for $30 and the kids would show up at 6pm and leave at 4pm the next day.

[epynephrin]

that's utterly ridiculous. I mean, it's nice to have that option, but far, far too many parents are expecting someone else to raise their children for them. Teachers, other parents, youth groups, and apparently the internets.

On occasion it's okay, but overall: no.